We are in the middle of the Viral Marketing section of our Growing Your List challenge, and the last two strategies we've discussed are using contests and JV Giveaways to build your list quickly.
Before you implement either of these list-building strategies, a very strong warning about how you present your giveaway or offer, to avoid unhappy (frustrated, annoyed) subscribers - and potentially serious spam complaints.
This could also relate to your opt-in incentive, or offering a "bribe" to get people to subscribe to your newsletter or mailing list, so please take this warning seriously...
❗ Warning ❗
In The Risks of Offering Rewards chapter (page 93) of List Building for Bloggers, Phil Hollows points out some serious email offenses that you may just make (or be making) accidentally. Given how much we've talked about these proven strategies to build your list, I thought it important to share the warning and prevent you from making some serious list-fatal mistakes.
In that chapter he covers:
- How list-building incentives can potentially harm you
- How to make incentives work without complaints
- 6 great ideas for your subscription landing page
Click Here to Download List Building for Bloggers
"If the opt-in to your mailing list wasn't explicit when the user signed up for the incentive, then any increase in spam complaints is justified." -Phil Hollows, Page 93
You face multiple risks here, if it is not clear they are also signing up for your mailing list or newsletter. First, it's not CAN-SPAM compliant. While you can follow up on the specific transaction (your incentive, contest, giveaway, etc) you do not have permission to mail them otherwise - unless you made that clear when they subscribed.
The second risk is an obvious one: high complaint & unsubscribe rates. And it's not only a reputation risk, and a waste of your effort at building the list in the first place, but it also leads into the third risk...
The third risk is getting penalized (or even banned) by your email service provider - such as MailChimp, FeedBlitz or Aweber - for high complaint rates and/or for not being CAN-SPAM compliant.
Serious stuff...
Segmenting For Contests & Giveaways
These risks are the reason I have recommended segmenting your lists from contests or JV Giveaways. The easiest way to do that is to set up a separate mailing list for each. This allows you to have incentive-specific stats, personalize your follow-up series, and of course you can later select multiple lists when you send a broadcast. So you can group them all together with your primary mailing list after you have successfully warmed them up to you and your list.
The option to personalize the experience is a great way to seal your new relationship with those subscribers. Anytime you offer an incentive, whether it's a contest or a free download, you run the risk of building a less than responsive list. Or a list of freebie seekers who quickly unsubscribe.
Instead of looping them into your main list, to get lost in the unrelated confirmations & mailings, set up a very focused process for them. From the confirmation email ("thank you for entering XYZ contest!") to the follow-up series.
In the follow-up messages you can refer specifically to the incentive, host surveys or even webinars related to the incentive, etc. You want to keep them engaged before you throw them into your less relevant mailing list. Less relevant to them, I mean, and to the reason they just joined your list.
The main point here is this: Make sure your subscription form makes it clear that they are (also) signing up for your mailing list or newsletter. Period.
Best,
p.s. I've mentioned Phil Hollows, and List Building for Bloggers, quite a bit lately. I was really impressed with the guide and have referred back to it multiple times since I first read it. I was going back through my notes & highlights over the weekend, and came up with 26 things (so far!) I need to do or change with my own email marketing strategy. Luckily they are all EASY quick-fixes, which will have very nice long-term returns. 
If you haven't picked up a copy of this guide yet, I highly recommend it!
And yes I'm an affiliate for LBB, but at less than five dollars commission I wouldn't even consider promoting it just for the money. This is simply one of the best guides I've read in a long time, and certainly the best ever on list building and email marketing. It's a must-read for ANYone with a blog, in my opinion.
